One family discusses a journey through med/surg sales generations in the making.
Brad Hilton was at a crossroads early in his career and he wanted his father Herb’s advice. He had a consulting opportunity on the table that would make more money.
“This was a big deal, and he gave me some incredible advice and feedback,” Brad said.
They jumped in Herb’s truck and drove around town, ending up in a Walmart parking lot. Brad asked him if he thought it was possible to make that kind of money in his current role. Herb told Brad yes, if Brad worked hard and did the right things.
“If you don’t focus on the money, the money will follow,” Herb told Brad. They laugh about that family story four or five times a year now.
“Every single time we talk about business, he says, ‘Do you remember?’ and I say, ‘you’re going to talk about the Walmart parking lot, aren’t you,’” Brad recalled.
That’s one of many fond memories for Brad, now senior vice president of primary care sales at McKesson Medical-Surgical. Herb Hilton, who retired in 2012, and his three sons – Dan, Doug (both McKesson reps) and Brad – recently sat down with Repertoire for a deep dive into the lessons Herb’s sons learned from working with him for so many years, including career pivots, industry changes and even the family’s love of racing.
‘A real blessing’
In the winter of 1959, Herb was between school semesters and didn’t have a job when his future father-in-law, Bud Bischoff, wondered why he was hanging around his house during the middle of the day.
“He said they were moving their retail store [Bischoff’s] into a warehouse and could use some help. So, I started at Bischoff’s and was going to college full time and working full time. By the time I got out of college, it seemed to me like the logical thing would be to start selling cotton balls and catheters,” Herb said.
Thus began his career in medical sales with his father-in-law as one of his early mentors. Later on, Ted James, president of Intermedco, a distributor of medical and surgical supplies, was instrumental in helping guide Herb from Orlando to Houston [at Intermedco] and eventually starting to form his own company, Hilton Surgical Supply, which serviced physicians in the Greater Houston area. All three of his sons – Brad, Dan and Doug – worked there at one time or another. In 1995, Hilton sold the company to Taylor Medical, which soon thereafter became part of PSS (now McKesson Medical-Surgical).
“[Ted] helped me with finances and encouragement,” Herb said. “I’ve always considered it a real blessing to have had him and others in my life.”
Vacation’s over
Herb passed on those lessons to his sons as they grew in the family business. Before college, Herb’s sons worked in the warehouse doing pickups, packing and pulling, and preparing orders for the next day’s deliveries.
Doug remembers when he and his brother Dan convinced Herb into letting them run the warehouse one summer. “We talked him into allowing us to go water skiing in the morning, then come home around lunchtime [to start working],” Doug said. “Somehow, we convinced him that was a good idea. But since there were two of us, he was probably paying us half-wages because we got double the work done in half the amount of time.”
Doug and Dan would wake up at 5 a.m., go to the lake and ski until 12 p.m. “We probably did it four days a week,” Doug said. “We’d take the boat back to the warehouse and put it in the sun to dry. Then, we’d pick, pack and pull until it was all done at about 6 p.m. We’d wake up the next morning and do it all over again.”
Those were some of Doug’s earliest and fondest memories before college graduation. But as Doug and Dan walked across the graduation stage on a Saturday afternoon, Herb was waiting with his hand extended to congratulate them – or so they thought.
“I want my gas card back,” Herb told them. Doug and Dan were going to work for Herb at 7 a.m. Monday morning, but not before Dan asked if they could have two or three more days to unwind after graduation. “You guys have been on vacation for five years,” Herb told them. “You don’t need any more vacation. I’ll see you Monday morning.”
Do things right
Herb had a perfecting work style, his sons said. One of the first lessons ingrained in Brad was if you’re going to do something, do it right. “That was an absolute,” Brad said.
The Hiltons used to handwrite orders and Brad admits to having bad handwriting. But when he’d scratch something out, Herb would tell him to rewrite it. “Our customers deserve better, and they deserve right,” Herb would say. “Rewrite it.”
When Herb’s sons would staple papers, staples were never allowed on top of each other. All the staples had to be removed and the new staples needed to be punched through the existing staple holes. “There’s only one way to do staples,” he’d say. “You have to do it right.”
There were even hygiene lessons thrown in with stapling and sales.
“I showed up to work unshaven one day,” Brad said. “[My dad] told me to go to the bathroom and shave. But there were only soap and prep razors in the bathroom. He said, ‘sounds like your problem, not mine. If you don’t shave, you’re not working today.’”
Brad admitted it was a bad experience. “Don’t shave with a prep razor and hand soap,” he said. “But dad’s big focus was on doing things right.”
Show your value
After making sure things are done right, you must bring value to the customer and believe in it. According to Brad, that was an important philosophy to his dad.
“Margins were king,” Brad said. “At one point, he wouldn’t pay a rep on any transaction below 40% margin. That’s how adamant he was.”
Herb believed if you can’t substantiate your value, then shame on you. But if you can substantiate it, don’t be scared of having a conversation about it with a customer and charging for it.
“If you bring value to the customer, then you have something to stand behind, but you have to believe it,” Brad said. “Those lessons are almost impossible to forget about today as we go about our daily work.”
A love of racing
The Hiltons work hard and play hard. The sons’ love of water skiing doesn’t stray too far from its source. Herb jokes that he said he sold surgical supplies so he could water ski and race cars. He’s been racing since 2000.
“We race about once a month,” Herb said. “We race on tracks all around the country. We’ve developed some fun relationships with competitors from different states and clubs.”
Some of Herb’s proudest memories are winning the championship in his group each year until last year. “And that’s only because I blew up my car three times,” he said.
Doug and Dan currently race in a different group, and Herb gets to watch them. “I have two grandsons racing as well,” Herb said. “So, what began as a solo adventure racing cars has become a family event.”
To listen to the complete interview, visit Repertoire’s Road Warriors Podcast Episode #21 – The Hilton Family.